Bending The Law

Texas gubernatorial hopeful Kinky Friedman says there was an open beer in his hand as he rode in a parade car in Dallas with his trademark black hat and burning cigar. Friedman appeared to violate the state's open container law by drinking from a can of Guinness while seated in a convertible during a St. Patrick's Day parade. Texas law prohibits opened alcoholic beverages in the passenger area of a motor vehicle.Dallas police Lieutenant Rick Watson says Friedman can't be cited after the fact because it wasn't witnessed at the time by an officer.

While this would be the state of the law here in my Ontario, it was a small delight to find myself at a parade in the nearest bit of the USA - Cape Vincent NY - at a parade a few years ago and ask the nearest police officer how it was he was not arresting all these people walking around with beer cans as a round about way of asking if I might follow their example. He explained that the law of that town was that open containers were OK but don't get behind the wheel. Civility itself.

No wonder 5000 came to that small village of 500 to enjoy the parade, the hundred of craft booths, the restaurants - the day. The local law was written to protect against the dangers of drinking and driving without imposing and demonizing the can of Guinness or whatever else you might want in hand. In the madness of the moment, I had one beer.

Maureen Ogle said this about the book: "... immensely readable, sometimes slightly surreal rumination on beer in general and craft beer in particular. Funny, witty, but most important: Smart. The beer geeks will likely get all cranky about it, but Alan and Max are the masters of cranky..."

Ron Pattinson said: "I'm in a rather odd situation. Because I appear in the book. A fictional version of me. It's a weird feeling."

Comments

In Syracuse NY we also have open container laws, but during the St. Patricks day parade and festivities, you need not worry about having an open containers along the parade route. Heck, Clark's Ale House does a very brisque business selling 1/2 gallon to-go beers that weekend.

Alan is apparently a Gen X-er who has hit 40... err...44... err... 45... YIKES... 46 ... [ZOW-WEE!!] 48... jessh, now 51... and edits and writes about other stuff at his personal website Gen X at 40. Please email Alan or any of the authors at this blog's gmail account - please write if you want to join the ranks of authors of this site or just want to send in a story on your favorite beer or photo of your regular pub.

I have moved the content of the OCB Commentary Wiki here. It is now a static document and pretty much is locked in as understandings existed as of 2012. Probably needs its own wiki to update the content! Below are the original introductory remarks:

"The purpose of this wiki is to collectively make comments, add annotation, identify errata and suggest further sources to the text of The Oxford Companion to Beer. Members are asked to avoid comment about the authors, the structure of the text or other extraneous matters. This wiki is a not for profit project that reviews the text pursuant to the concept of "fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review" under Canadian copyright law." Alan McLeod, wiki Organizer, and chief bottle washer at A Good Beer Blog. Motto? "Many hands make pleasant work." Alan McLeod, 25 October 2011. Please provide some information about yourself when making a request to join the wiki. Anonymous requests for membership will not be approved. Overly ardent and rudely put claims to authority will be cause for removal from the membership. As of 11 January 2012, 134 entries or 12.2% of the total of 1,100 received commentary, many with multiple comments. Eight of the photos have been corrected as well. That number rose to 151 by 13 May 2012.